Personal financing and maintaining a balanced lifestyle was the focus of a presentation by a freelance personal finance writer at the AC Hub on Thursday, Jan. 25.
By spending money in the right place, you will be producing a lot of money, Robert R. Brown told a gathering of about 35 students. This is a way to be more productive than those who spend extravagantly in your neighbourhood.
“Give yourself time to adapt, and you will.”
While Brown has never had a business, he was motivated to provide advice in this era of insecure employment.
He is a freelance personal finance writer whose first book ‘Wealthing Like Rabbits’ is an introduction to personal finance. His book was distributed among the Algonquin students yesterday. Brown has a background in food marketing management.
Other than colleges and universities, he also speaks to business and trade organizations to benefit employees.
He stressed the need to save some money for future, living within one’s means, compound interest, paying oneself first, dealing with consumer debt and credit cards, and being comfortable doing so.
“Whatever you think you can save, be a little aggressive with yourself, and save a little more,” he said.
“In our increasingly materialistic world, it’s perhaps more important than it’s ever been, not to worry about what everybody else thinks,” he said.
Brown wants his audience not to spend money to impress people, but to live in one’s own blanket. He gave an example of a couple that lived in a way that was above their means. They showed off to impress their neighbour, but he did what Brown suggested his audience to do: “screw the Joneses” — that is, not to impress people with extravagance, but to live in one’s own means.
The decisions you make now on how to spend money in the near future could have a substantial impact on where you will end up in the future, so spend wisely to be able to tell who do you want to be, he said.